Wednesday, February 21, 2007

In a previous entry about Amaryllis pollination I think I promised an update on what the seed pods would look like when the pollination was successful.

Notice how green and plump the seed pod on the right is compared to the one on the left. The one on the left didn't take even though it was self-pollinated just like the one on the right.

In both of them you can see how I've left the flower on to die off naturally instead of trimming it down. I didn't trim it down so you can see where the seed pods develop in relation to where the flower is.

Here's a video I made showing you how to pot an Amaryllis Bulb.

and one showing you how to pollinate an Amaryllis flower.

You can also visit my Amaryllis Bulbs blog where the content is exclusively about growing Amaryllis bulbs.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

If you spend any time on gardening forums you may come across the word etiolation from time to time. You'll particularly encounter the word in Cacti and Succulents forums where it is often discussed or seen in pictures of people who are having trouble with their plants.

Basically etiolation occurs when a plant does not receive enough light and produce weak up-right growth. Plants that should be globular in growth start to stretch and grow upward like the cacti in the photo attached to this entry.

You can provide your plant with higher amounts of light by placing them in south facing windows or by building plant light shelves to supplement the low lights that you get indoors during the winter months. Once your plant has etiolated there isn't really a cure and it will look deformed forever.

About Garden Hacker

Welcome to my Garden Hacker blog. I started this blog to post little tutorials for gardening that I'll call Garden Hacks. I started this blog as a joke because of all the blog/life hacker blogs that I'm a fan of. I'll be using this blog to post things that are different than what I post on my main gardening blog. Stop in once in a while and learn how to propagate plants or look for other gardening tips and ideas. If you have some of your own feel free to comment or tell me about your blog entry.